From Darkness to Light
by Iris Marie
Summary: A small fic that covers what exactly was going through Ginny's mind during Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It's rather short, but please r/r!


A/N:

Ah, my small little rewrite of book 2: The Chamber of Secrets. Face it, so far in the series, that's the only book where Ginny and Harry ever really conversed and stuff, so I wanted to do a small inside the mind scenario of the duo. All of the information and rewriting stuff I got started off on Chapter 16. I'm unsure whether or not anyone else have done this (most likely since this has got to be one of the most intriguing Harry and Ginny moments in the series) but if someone else has, please take note that I did not copy. I haven't even read any thing like this, so I hope everyone enjoys and please r/r!

Usual disclaimers apply.

From Darkness to Light

By Iris Marie

_'No one's ever understood me like you, Tom… I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in… It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket…"_

'Like a friend,' Ginny Weasley thought bitterly, looking around the Gryfinndor table and even more at her brother and Harry. She shivered slightly, knowing that Harry had that awful diary that had possessed her… that seemed to be taking energy from her each time she opened it. She had remembered coming across it and happily picking it up. Remembered when she had poured out all her troubles so she could sort through them, just like what Dumbledore would do with his Pensieve.

She had told of her brothers teasing, not really Ron or Percy, but Fred and George. How homesick she had felt for the first few days… how lonely. She had confided to the diary that she had a crush on Harry Potter, and from that day forth, the diary had written back passionately to tell her to tell him everything she knew about Harry. When she had tried to hold back information, an odd sense of foreboding coming down upon her, the words that were written from the book had turned rather vicious, calling her 'stupid' and the likes. Eventually she had written down everything she did know about Harry, and that was when everything started to go wrong.

'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there.'

'A Roosters crow is lethal to a basilisk,' she thought, remembering when she had done research on it for the sake of her sanity. She could still see Hagrid coming into the castle with a dead rooster in his hand. Could still see Harry asking him about it. She had wanted to run to them and tell them what she knew, but she kept silent, still trusting the diary like a moron.

_'I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front.'_

Mrs. Norris hanging stunned down the corridor flashed through her vision, and she silently lowered her head to her folded arms. The other Gryfinndors in her year gave her a concerned glance, but she smiled to them to fake that she was fine. They nodded and went back to chatting, but their words were drowned out. Instead, she could still remember the words that were still inscribed down the corridor: The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.

She stared at one of her outstretched hands and closed it in a fist. She had no recollection, but she knew, deep inside, it was her. Everything that happened was because of her.

'Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me…There was another attack today and I don't know where I was.'

'I never know,' she thought, her throat constricting at the frustration of it all. It didn't matter if anyone suspected her. Damn it, she suspected herself! She wanted to tell somebody, anybody, about the diary, about Tom, about the events that had happened.

"I have good news," she heard Ms. McGonagall announce, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted. Ginny raised her head, looking around as several people were saying that Dumbledore was coming back and a girl in Ravenclaw said that they've caught the Heir of Slytherin. Wood was shouting that the Quidditch matches were back on and everyone's face broke out into a smile. Ginny wanted to smile along, but couldn't, instead watching with mild curiosity as to what McGonagall was going to say. 

When everyone began to quiet down, Professor McGonagall continued. "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

There was an explosion of cheering and Ginny heard Ron exclaim something to Harry about Hermione. She once more felt that need to tell, that irrepressible need to let everything spill since it would soon be over. She stood up from her chair, her heart now banging wildly against her chest. Would they believe her? Would they blame her? Would Tom find out that she told? She remembered again how violent he had gotten after a couple of days, and she felt like crying, thinking of how angry he might be towards her. What he could do in that rage.

_'What am I going to do? I think I'm going mad…'_

Ginny took a seat next to Ron, tense and nervous, her hands now twisting wildly on her lap. "What's up?" Ron said. She remained quiet, her eyes glancing up and down the Gryfinndor table, scared of what they might think of her. Scared that _he_ might be listening in. 

"Spit it out," said Ron, his eyes now directly on her. His food was temporarily forgotten, his concentration now on his sister.

She thought of the diary that Harry had, the events that led when she had it. "I have to tell you something," she mumbled, trying to find the exact words to say what she wanted… needed to say.

"What is it?" said Harry.

_'I think I'm going mad…I think I'm the one attacking everyone!'_

"_What?_" said Ron.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only she and Ron could hear. "Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"

Ginny felt a batch of tears come, but she suppressed them and drew in a deep breath. This was the time. She opened her mouth, her throat already constricting at the words she was about to say.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty." Ginny, her heart skipping multiple beats, jumped up as if her chair had been electrified. She looked towards Percy, giving him a fleeting, frightened look and scampered away. She walked quickly out of the Great Hall and ran into the common room. Once she got there, her heart was beating double time and she slid down the wall.

She had thought that it was Tom, out of the book, tapping her shoulder. Her heart was still raging against her ribcage, tears of frustration and surprise rolling down her cheeks. Wiping them away harshly, she stood up and stared at the stairs leading to the boy's dormitory. She couldn't let Harry open that book and she couldn't allow Tom to persuade Harry to do the things she did. She ran up to Harry and her brother's room and began looking frantically for the diary.

She had it. _She had it_. She stared at the mess she had created, but dismissed it and ran down to the common room and into her own room. She laid the diary on her desk, watching it with hate and fright, not knowing exactly what to do.

'Burn it,' she thought, staring at it. 'Burn it so no one else can touch it.'

She laid her hand upon the front cover and she felt an incredible urge to yell at Tom… to scream at him… to let loose all the pent up exhaustion and frustration. Grabbing a quill, she opened the book and began to write.

_I know now… I know what you were doing to me._

She waited silently, watching as the words she wrote sunk into the pages. She waited for the familiar scrawl of Tom to appear. And finally, it did.

_Where's Harry?_

_Were you going to make him kill roosters and paint awful words on walls, too? Were you going to make him command that disgusting, oversized snake on people that he knows and cares about? Well, I won't let you do that anymore! You won't hurt him!_

There was a pause as no words came back and Ginny felt a wave of fear engulf her, as there came no reply. She was about to just shut the book, but then green light came pouring out of the diary and around her body. She screamed, sending the diary spilling to the floor. A wave of exhaustion now hit her and she fell upon her knees, unable to stand up properly. A pair of feet was now in front of her and when she looked up, another scream began to crawl its way up her throat. "You're a stupid, little girl, do you know that Ginny?"

Ginny crawled backwards, wanting to get up and run past that flimsy image of Tom and down the stairs to the Great Hall. She wanted to start crying in her brother's arms and scream that it was the diary; have Dumbledore assure her everything was going to be all right. Tom's image moved forward, and Ginny felt a sob of both fatigue and fright escape her lips as she couldn't stand up and run. "Come now, Ginny. Since you love to write so much, I suppose I should have you write your goodbye to all your friends and family."

The room about her shimmered and disappeared, and when she looked around again, she was in a corridor, the wall that she had painted the last message now in front of her. A bucket of paint and a brush was laid out in front of her and Tom stood to her side. "C'mon Ginny. Pick up that brush and write, 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"

Ginny glanced quickly to Tom, more sobs now forming. "Go on, Ginny, write your fate." She cried, feeling the tears run down her face. She shook her head, wanting to plead for him to let her go, but sobs were welling her throat shut and fear gripped her heart tightly. "Write," Tom once more muttered, no humor in his voice, but a forcefulness that implied that if she didn't, he'll do much worse.

She picked up the brush, tears still falling down her cheeks. She began to write the words, and as she wrote skeleton, she had to pause to wipe the tears that clouded her vision. Tom was happily watching her struggle to write it and when she was done she threw the brush back into the bucket of paint. She was still crying, still trying to regain herself and when Tom bent down to keep their eyes leveled, she grabbed the bucket and hit him with it.

To her surprise, the bucket of paint rushed right past him to hit the wall on the other side of the hallway. She stared in shock and Tom laughed. "Oh, no, not yet Ginny. I haven't taken enough to become solid of course. But, I have taken enough to make sure you stay under my command." A wand appeared in his hand and he was flicking it around. "Nice try, by the way. But, it will really hurt on how long I'll keep you alive." He stared at the mess on the wall and easily cleaned it up with a muttered word. "Now, come along, Ginny. It's time."

She remembered very little of what then happened. All she knew that she hurt. Everything in her body felt as if it didn't belong to her. She told herself to get up and nothing happened. Her legs felt alienated from her, as did everything else. She couldn't even open her freaking eyes. It was that way till a wave of pure blackness came to her, the little lights that had played around her closed eyelids vanishing…

She woke up with a small start, memories of what had happened seemed beyond her. She rubbed her eyes to get the sleepiness out of them and as she sat up, she saw the huge form of the dead basilisk, the same one that she had once been forced to command. Memories were now tugging furiously at her, but still there was that blank. She then saw Harry with his blood-soaked robes next to her, his green eyes wide with concern and relief. Once more that furious tugging, but still she couldn't recall anything. And then, finally, her eyes wandered to the diary in his hand and with a flash, everything started to come back to her.

She now stared at Harry, stricken. "Harry - oh, Harry – I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c_­_-_couldn't_ say it in front of Percy – it was _me_, Harry – but I – I s-swear I d-didn't mean to – R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over –and _how_ did you kill that – that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary –" she trailed off, staring about her surroundings.

"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing her the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him _and_ the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here-"

"I'm going to be expelled!" She said suddenly, thinking now of her mother and father, and especially Dumbledore, when they find out that it was she who had killed the roosters and set the basilisk against the four students. Against Hermione! "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and – _w-what'll Mum and Dad say_?" 

Harry wrapped an arm around her waist and Ginny stopped her prattling and stared at him. He was slightly blushing, his cheeks going pink. She smiled, the first one in a very long time. She stood up, along with his help, and he kept his arm around her waist to steady her. "Thanks," she muttered, staring down to the floor. "I…"

"It's all right, Ginny," he said, looking at her. "C'mon. Ron's waiting for us. Everyone's waiting for us…. No, wait, everyone's waiting for _you_."

"They shouldn't be… everything was my fault, Harry. If I wasn't so stupid… if I hadn't touched that journal…"

"Somebody would have eventually," Harry replied, watching as Fawkes waited patiently for them. He began to walk forward and Ginny followed. Her grip on him tightened as they past the dead basilisk, and oddly enough, Harry felt both awkward, but happy. He was glad Riddle was defeated, but he also was glad that Ginny was all right. She was all right. He stared at her, watching as she was still battling against the tears that were falling down her face.

As they got back to the tunnel, the stone doors closed behind them with a soft hiss. Ginny jumped, but Harry soothed her. "It's over with," he said softly. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine now."

Her teary eyes locked with his and Ginny felt safe. She nodded, no longer feeling as if she needed to speak. She was safe. He was there. He defeated Riddle. He destroyed the diary. As they walked down the tunnel to where Ron was, she felt the fear that had taken possession of her disappear. Harry was with her. Ron was with her. Soon, she'd be out of this tunnel and with her family. She glanced back towards Harry who was talking to Ron, and she felt a new batch of tears come. Not because she was scared, frightened, or frustrated, but because right now she felt safe.

Harry now was holding the leg of Fawkes, saying that the bird would fly them up back to the school. He was instructing Ron to hold Gilderoy's hand and Ginny's. "Let's get out of here," he said with a smile, offering his hand to her. "Are you ready?"

She wiped away the stray tears that now fell and laid her hand in his. He gave it a small squeeze and smiled reassuringly to her. "Everything's fine now, Ginny. Don't worry." He whispered so only she could hear. "I promise you'll be fine."

Ginny nodded, watching as Fawkes began to fly them up back to the school. And through that flight, Harry's grip on her hand never wavered and she smiled, relief and the feeling of actually being safe engulfing her. And she watched as the darkness that she had been in, both physically and mentally, began to give way to the light.

The End

I know, I know, I changed a few things so I could end it the way I did. Ginny didn't hold Harry's hand and everything else, but hey, this was supposed to be my own little version to add to that. Sorry it was so short! Liked it, hated it? Please review!

Do you like Harry and Ginny & Ron and Hermione fics? Then visit my page! I got a new one:

[http://www.geocities.com/hparchive/index.htm][1]

I hope you enjoyed this fic! Harry and Ginny are the best, anyways ^-^ All right, now I'll get a flame for that one.

   [1]: http://www.geocities.com/hparchive/index.htm



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